Poverty in America: The Welfare Dilemma

and ethnic preferment can be as unjust as primary discrimination. The
answer to the question probably rests with creating increased equality of
opportunity by providing safeguards to ensure honest competition and by
providing increased services to give children at an early age the competency necessary to compete in their adult lives.

Any country that relies on caste rather than on competency can expect
declining productivity and lessened social mobility for all. Affirmative
action will not compensate for the inadequate preparation given poor
children to compete when they reach adulthood.

Other laws designed to protect minorities include guarantees against
garnisheement of workers' wages by creditors in some states. Home-
steading of a family home, car, and furniture of a person is another
example of some state provisions to protect families from being pressed
into extreme poverty by creditors. Many states have tenant protection
laws which provide for eviction only after careful due process. In the
interim, tenants in danger of losing housing have the opportunity to retain
their housing or to seek other housing. Consumer protection law requires
manufacturers and retailers to make good on their products, and in this
way families are protected against these financial hazards. Recent laws
requiring truth in lending also protect borrowers by clearly setting out the
costs of loans and credit.

Another type of legislation in the protection category relates to protecting the individual's right to equally effective public education. This law
can mean a great deal in preparing the individual to compete on an equal
basis. (This legislative effort is presented in Chapter 8.)

All of the laws in the protective category safeguard individuals and
families from hazards that would interfere with their equal opportunities
and that might otherwise be beyond their control. As such, they are
designed to protect individuals and families from a certain degree of
poverty deriving from their less secure position in the society.

In 1980 the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was divided
into a Department of Health and Human Services and a Department of
Education. Presumably, the programs listed in this chapter (other than
Basic Educational Opportunity Grants) will be delegated to the Department
of Health and Human Services.

References

Axinn June and
Herman Levin. Social Welfare--A History of the American Response to Need. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975.

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